I'll Do Anything!
by Daft Mut
Summary: Hi, now i get to decide if Niko gets his brain back. R&R. PS: I fixed chapter 5.
1. Insperation!

3  
  
Daja lay awake on her bed thinking of dares for her friends to do. She wasn't really mad with them for telling, she knew how persistent Niko could be, he had given her that look when she had found Briars knifes, he still didn't know who had given him away.  
  
She had had a few ideas but they weren't very good, she liked the idea of paying back Niko, like teaching him a lesson but she had no decent plans. She played with the idea of making Sandry put a spell on herself so she forgot who she was every now and then but no, that was cruel she could get into trouble. Daja liked thought of getting Briar to run around in nothing but a towel shouting "I swear, it's not what it looks like, me and Rosethorn were only talking"! But that would be too fast and he was alright and when Rosethorn found out she really would kill him. Also what if she got Tris to.  
  
Her thought was broken by a noise of Niko coming in the front door. She could here Lark say,  
  
"Niko, I really think that you should stop using your eyes of truth on the girls and Briar, it is really upsetting for them".  
  
"No, they must learn not to lie if they continue as they have then they will end up in big trouble"  
  
Lark scoffed "it's no like you ever had to tell the truth!" and walked off to her room.  
  
Suddenly inspiration came; she would tell Tris her dare now. Daja got up and went over to open her shutters, when she opened them she saw that there were many hours before sunrise. She sighed her plan would have to wait till day, besides she still had to think of something for Briar and Sandry to do.  
  
4  
  
When Tris got up the others had already risen and were going about there busyness.  
  
"Tris" said a voice "I have got a job for you to do"  
  
She turned around so see Daja with a massive grin on her face.  
  
She said to herself, I'm beginning to wish I had never made that promise.  
  
"Oh its not that bad, go get the others" said Daja.  
  
When they were all seated at the big wooden table Daja said "All right every one I have an announcement to make, I have the perfect task for Tris"  
  
They all stared intently at her beaming face.  
  
"Tris your job will be to teach Niko a lesson, you will put a truth spell on him so he knows what it feels like, and it will serve him right for making me clean the privy for the next two months and double chores"  
  
They all gawked at her, putting a spell on Niko was serous stuff and even if it worked, which it probably wouldn't, they would get caught and they would all be cleaning the privy for the rest of there life's.  
  
"No, I'll do anything but I won't do that"!  
  
"Tris, you promised" said Sandry  
  
"She's right" agreed Briar  
  
This was insane, stupid, and crazy. She would be caught. Why should she do it? Tris recoiled from three pairs of intent eyes.  
  
"I can't believe I'm doing this! But Ok, just this once" 


	2. I'll Do Anything

I'LL DO ANYTHING!  
  
1.  
  
Briar Moss sighed "I never knew life could be so boring"  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Sandry, the most tolerant of the four young mages at the discipline cottage.  
  
"He means" said Tris the weather witch "That if doesn't find something to do soon then he will die of boredom"  
  
"Exactly" agreed Briar  
  
"But", protested Sandry "how can you be bored? We get up and wash and then we do our chores, after that we do our meditation and then we go and work with our teachers, I don't know how we have time to do it all in one day!"  
  
Tris sighed "what he's trying to say is that we do the same thing each day and he is sick of it, I don't agree with him but it might be nice if something interesting could happen"  
  
"'cos if something good doesn't happen, soon I will have to make it ha."  
  
"Hey, Hey let me in!" shouted a familiar voice from outside the cottage.  
  
All three at the table got up and ran to open the door for the forth lodger at discipline cottage, Daja was carrying a large cloth bag and was gasping for air.  
  
"Do any of you feel like helping me with this?" she gasped. They all came out to help her with her load, it wasn't as heavy as they had thought it would be but was still very, very big.  
  
"What is it?" asked Tris  
  
Briar grinned "has Daja been naughty?"  
  
Sandry who had weaving magic felt inside the cloth bag and found many different types of fabric, there was silks, leathers, wools, and some flax.  
  
"Is fabric" said Sandry "but why do you have it? And where did you get it?"  
  
[Hush, no shouting keep it quiet!"]  
  
The four had been talking mouth to mouth but now they started to speak mind to mind.  
  
[What have you done Daja?"] Asked Tris  
  
[Well, I had nothing to do after I had finished with Frostpine so I decided to muck around for a bit, anyway I was walking past the baths when it occurred to me to hide everyone's clothes while they bathe and.]  
  
In his excitement all the plants near Briar began to wriggle and squirm, this happens because of his plant magic which often breaks lose from his grasp. [You never did!] He said  
  
[I did! It was such a stupid thing to do, what should I do? I can't take them back, they'll see me I only just got away this time, and what's worse is that only after I have done it do I remember that Niko was in there!] She finished with a last whimper.  
  
They all herd a noise from outside, the sound of people coming.  
  
[I'm going out the back door; I'll do anything just to be gone when Niko gets back! You won't tell, will you?]  
  
[Don't be silly, just like a girl!] Grinned Briar  
  
[Run!!!] They all chorused as they watched Daja run out the back with her load and run down the path.  
  
Once she was gone the three burst out laughing, tears were running down there faces when Niko came in wearing a bathing robe. He looked at the children suspiciously from under his furrowed brow; all of them stopped laughing and looked into his unblinking eyes.  
  
Briar felt himself beginning to sweat, Sandry felt like crying and Tris did her best not to run over and give Sandry a hug, they had never seen there teacher so annoyed. Niko was the man who had found them and there magic and brought then to discipline cottage.  
  
Thank the gods I can trust them not to tell Niko thought Daja as she walked away from the house, she was board again so she decided to talk to her housemates mind to mind again.  
  
They were blocking her out she hated it when they did that she couldn't speak with them but she could sense there feelings if she tried hard enough, Daja bent her mind searching for her friends, they were nervous she was almost sure that's what that was, maybe Rosethorn had just come in, Rosethorn was Briars teacher who was one of there carers in discipline cottage, the other was Lark who had a much less of a sharp tongue. Now what was that feeling it was, it was. guilt! That was it but why were they feeling gui. Oh no, they didn't, did they? She bit her lip  
  
"DAJA"!!!  
  
They did, why did I do that stupid prank?  
  
2  
  
"It was Daja!" They all shouted. Once they had realised what they had done they hung there heads. They should have kept there mouths shut. They had promised.  
  
"Right!" said Niko his face red with anger.  
  
"DAJA"!!!  
  
"You won't be too hard on her, will you? Said Sandry in a small voice  
  
"Hard on her? Hard on her! I will skin her alive that's what I'll do! Fumed Niko, who was usually calm and even-tempered  
  
"I'm here" said Daja as she entered the room  
  
"Come with me, NOW!" Said Niko  
  
Daja shot one last angry look that said thanks at her friends and then followed him into the next room.  
  
It was only 15 minutes. But to Briar, Sandry and Tris, it felt like a lifetime. Daja walked out of the room, all 3 friends came to greet her but she pulled away from there attempts to help her. At last Daja lost patience  
  
"Why can't you just leave me alone? I don't want you to speak with me! I don't want you to try! So go away"  
  
"Isn't there anything we can do? Just so we can have peace?" cried Sandry  
  
"I have an idea" said Briar once he had finished his pasta.  
  
Every one looked intently at him.  
  
"What we do is Daja gives us a challenge to do, when I was in a gang if we did something that the boss didn't like we'd do like a challenge like, steeling off a bag or,"  
  
"Ok, ok we get the idea" said Tris "The point is will you do it Daja?"  
  
There was a pause; all eyes were on Daja who refused to look up.  
  
"Alright" she said "but only if you do the task."  
  
"We'll do anything" they promised.  
  
"Anything?" she said grinning  
  
"Anything"!  
  
Daja smiled, this would be interesting alright. 


	3. Liar, Liar pants on Fire!

4  
  
Tris breathed in, why in the name of the gods was she doing this? They would all be caught and Rosethorn would hang them all in the well. Another part of her brain answered back, you promised and it will be a laugh if it works, 'which it will not' said the other part again.  
  
"Briar do you have all the things I need?" she asked  
  
"Yes" droned Briar "now just get on with it and stop delaying copper curls"!  
  
"He's right" said Sandry "We need to get this over and done with"  
  
"Ready?" asked Daja  
  
"Ready" whispered Tris unsurely  
  
She had got out a book from Winding Circle library called liar, liar pants on fire? It told her what she had to do and Daja picked the spell for her.  
  
She took a deep breath and began breathing as if she were meditating in and out, in and out and again then she said the incantation and cast the leaves of lily dust into the air and with one of her faithful breezes carried it of to Niko and when he breathed in the sweet smelling fumes he could do nothing else but tell the truth if someone asked him. She felt them sucking all of her power from her this was a complicated spell and would need all of her strength. It was pulling away from her so she called up all of her reserve strength to guide it away.  
  
Tris pulled out of her trance with a violent jump and fell onto her back on the floor.  
  
"Tris, Tris are you ok? Are you hurt?" yelped Sandry as she dived to the floor to help her.  
  
"You Ok Copper Curls?" asked Briar leaning over Sandry's left shoulder.  
  
"I'm ok thanks but I am very sleepy so I think ill go to bed now" she sighed  
  
"Good idea, you look like you need it!" Said Briar grinning  
  
"Thanks ever so" she replied  
  
"Do you think it worked" asked Daja as she helped Tris to walk to her room.  
  
"I think so but it was hard I-" Something persuaded her not to go on, it was her door or to be more precise her door frame. In midst of there conversation they hadn't seen it and Trisana Chandler went out as cold as a stone.  
  
When she came to she saw three anxious faces looking down at her  
  
"She's waking up; get some tea quick, hurry up Briar!"  
  
"I'm going, I'm going". One of the faces diapered and then returned carrying a cup.  
  
"Are you ok Tris?" Asked one of the faces  
  
"I, I think so" Tris answered "A bit bruised but I'm all right"  
  
Briar laughed as he handed her the drink "Walked state into the door!"  
  
I'll get him for that later she thought.  
  
"Hey you had better get up" said Daja "Niko could be back any second"  
  
"No" insisted Sandry "She needs rest"  
  
"I'm alright, can you see the bruise?" She asked as she put the cup on the table.  
  
"No it's under that mass of Copper Curls, Copper Curls" Briar grinned.  
  
Just then there was a noise.  
  
They all went down to se what it was. It was Niko coming in the door with a very red face. 


	4. The Deep Thoughts of Niko

5  
  
He slammed the door and lent against it breathing hard like he had been running. Fast.  
  
He looked up at them.  
  
"Oh joy now I have to deal with the babies!" he moaned but then immediately covered his mouth trying to stop anything else from slipping out  
  
"Oh gods it's happing again, why can't the stupid kids just drop dead?" again he covered his mouth and went very red  
  
"Niko that was NOT called for"! Asked a sharp voice from outside, it was Rosethorn.  
  
"Not now you old bag I'm trying not to-" yet again words slipped out when they were plainly not meant to.  
  
The four pupils could not help but laugh at Niko's hapless condition.  
  
"Niko please stop this" Lark said to him close to tears.  
  
"He must have had a drink or two"! Scorned Rosethorn  
  
"I haven't you ungrateful old bat"!  
  
Niko looked up at them with his usual calm expiration but when he talked he said very unnikoish things.  
  
"Children go upstairs" said Niko "Rosethorn Lark come here I need to talk to you NOW"!  
  
Once they all got out of earshot they couldn't hold it in any longer, all of them were on the floor splitting there sides with laughter  
  
"Did - did y' see Rosethorn's face?" Briar asked between laughs  
  
"Yeah!" giggled Tris "I thought she would skin him then and there!"  
  
Daja wiped a tear of joy off her cheek "That has to be the best idea I have ever had"  
  
They all agreed and then started the laughing fit right from the top again.  
  
It was Sandry who stopped first "Hey, I don't think the spell worked properly. Something's gone wrong"  
  
"Don't be stupid" replied Briar "Didn't you see him? He told us just what he thought of us, he told us the truth"  
  
"No" said Tris "Sandry is right, he told us what he was thinking but no one asked him a question"  
  
"So what has happened then" asked Briar  
  
"He" Daja lowered her voice "He can only speak his mind"  
  
"What do we do?" asked Sandry  
  
"Well" speculated Briar "From my point of view it looks like this, Niko can only tell the truth or if he can lie he will tell us though, so by the looks of it, we and the rest of the world can read his mind, which isn't really bad at all"  
  
"Let's find out what they are talking about"  
  
The four crept to the top of the stair case and strained there ears to find out what is was the teachers were on about  
  
"Niko, lets go over this again" said Rosethorn "You can't stop saying what you think, so just don't say anything"  
  
Niko popped like a well dressed balloon "FOR THE LAST TIME YOU OLD HAG, I CANT STOP! EVERY TIME I THINK SOMETHING I CANT STOP MY SELF FROM SAYING IT SO DON'T YOU TELL ME WHAT TO DO D'YOU HERE ME?"  
  
Daja smiled to herself dinner would be fun. 


	5. Dinner Time!

6  
  
They all sat at the dinner table with there heads down trying not to laugh.  
  
I had sat in silence biting my lip, staring at my soup.  
  
Daja and the rest of the pupils exchanged impish grins, and Lark and Rosethorn tried to make conversation and failed.  
  
"So" said Lark to me "How was your day with Danica WindListener Niko"?  
  
"She is an old faggot who only grew for about two seconds and then stopped; I had to make sure I didn't stand on her!" I went very red and returned to scowling at my soup, trying to ignore the children's sniggers. Danica WindListener was a very well respected mage and it would not look good if  
my real thoughts of my superior got about.  
  
I felt myself lose my temper and in an attempt to stop myself from yelling I took the last meat ball and shoved it whole into my mouth.  
  
"Hey" protested Briar "That's mine, you've had three already!"  
  
Silly boy just when it was going well.  
  
"Oh, SHUT UP! If you spent as much attention on your food as you did on Sandry then you would have noticed me take it you nookle! But NO you had to sit there like a dilapidated jelly fish!"  
  
Oops  
  
Briar went very red like he had something to hide (apart from the knives and the earlier relationship with a carrot, Sandry must have been a nice change) Niko somehow mastered his present situation and only said these things under hid breath.  
  
"You, snobbish old fool!" shouted Briar "It isn't true!" and with that he stomped off to his room. On the way out Lark said  
  
"Now Briar dear, cant we just talk-" his answer to that was to push over one of her sewing trays scattering bobbins and pins everywhere. Sandry got up just as she left the room gave me a 'bad' look, and hen ran up to give Briar some 'sisterly' love.  
  
"That's right, you go and be alone" I shouted after her.  
  
Lark shook her head in that way that says 'what WILL I do with you?'  
  
Rosethorn took up the plates and began to wash them in the next room. Lark got down on her hands and knees and began to pick up the pins, I couldn't help it.  
  
She turned round with a Very livid face, though up in arms would be more exact and slapped me round my mouth shouting things like  
  
"You disgusting OLD man!" and "I have to live in the same house as you, I think of you as one of my dearest friends" and other girly crap including "What kind of example do you think you are setting for the children!"? Along with some other cursed I have never learnt before. Once she had stormed off Rosethorn came in and asked me what I had done,  
  
"Work it out for yourself"  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Do YOU know what he did? Let me know soon and I will tell you if you are right!  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Hi  
  
I am afraid that I can't update for a few weeks 'cos I'm going on holiday, two weeks without TV or the computer! The most modern thing there is an old radio! Ahhh, two weeks of listening to Radio Scotland and the latest midgie count. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. 


	6. Free of not to free that is the ?

"After last night my head was still spinning, Lark had shouted and cried and screamed and hollered and yelled and shrieked and bawled. And after that she started all over again from the top.  
  
I would have to make it up with her. It was my only chance of getting a decent meal round here. You know she only cooked for six today and I am starving.  
  
It really isn't fair. What did I do! Okay, Okay so shoot me I'm only human I can't be perfect all the time!"  
  
I looked round the market square, everyone was staring at me.  
  
"Said it out loud, didn't I"  
  
"Yeah" said Rosethorn.  
  
"WHEN I CATCH THAT LITTLE SHRIMP THAT PUT THIS SPELL ON ME I WILL RIP OUT THERE THROUGHT WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS"!  
  
"Niko" said Sandry "Be quiet"  
  
"This isn't fair!"  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
"You have to take the spell off him Daja"  
  
"No Sandry, I'm having too much fun. Let's take him out to the fair to morrow"  
  
"Daja! Just let him go."  
  
"Fine, we will take it off him if you go the fair with him tomorrow. Me and Tris will stay behind and undo the spell. Okay? "  
  
"Okay, I don't know about you but I will be glad that this whole silly dare game is finished"  
  
"Why on the contrary, you and briar haven't done one yet. And I have a terrible idea"  
  
"What is it Daja"  
  
Daja giggled "not telling"  
  
"DAJA!"  
  
Briar came up "what's all the shouting about your disturbing my plants. If you keep on like this then they will all Hulk-out there pots!"  
  
"Daja has thought of a 'nice little dare for us to do" said Sandry coldly  
  
"What is it" asked Briar who seamed unmoved by Sandry's tone.  
  
"She won't tell us, not just now anyway."  
  
"Ok" and he walked out the room.  
  
"How can he not be bothered that his stepsister is thinking some especially nasty task for him to complete"  
  
"He is just too brave and fearless to care, he's a hero" sighed Sandry.  
  
A moment later they heard his door close and Briar Moss breaking down and crying his eyes out.  
  
"Not so brave after all" sniggered Daja.  
  
"Cant you tell me Daja?"  
  
"I would but need to make a few adjustments to my plan"  
  
"Like what" pried Sandry  
  
Daja tapped her nose "That's for me to know and for you to find out"! 


End file.
